Liberté pre dreadnought class, Vérité

Mathll · February 26, 2026, 8:13pm

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Hello everyone and welcome to this new suggestion.

Today I’m presenting a brand new ship from the Liberté class, the Vérité.

The third ship of its class, this vessel was laid down in 1903 in Saint-Nazaire and entered active service in 1908. Its design was already showing its age, even though it was invented only a decade earlier, due to the rapid evolution of naval combat techniques and technologies of the time. Based in Toulon, the Vérité, like its sister ships, joined the Mediterranean Squadron and carried out various training and representational missions in Europe and around the world.

At the outbreak of war in August 1914, the Vérité was part of the forces tasked with securing the western Mediterranean. It quickly participated in escorting convoys transporting French troops from North Africa to France. A few weeks later, it was deployed to the Adriatic with Franco-British forces to contain Austro-Hungarian ships within their ports. It indirectly participated in the operations surrounding the Battle of Antivari (August 1914), although its involvement was limited by the weak sortie of the opposing fleet. The growing threat of submarines quickly restricted the movements of large Allied warships, reducing their role to observation and support missions. From 1916 onward, after Italy entered the war on the side of the Entente, French battleships were gradually assigned to more static missions. The Vérité also participated in Allied operations in Greece, intended to politically support the country’s alignment with the Entente forces.

After the armistice, the Vérité remained in the Mediterranean, where it carried out secondary missions, but was not sent to the Black Sea, unlike some of its sister ships. The rapid evolution of shipbuilding after 1918 rendered the modernization of French pre-dreadnoughts unnecessary, and they were then gradually withdrawn from service. The Vérité was placed in reserve a few years after the end of the conflict, then decommissioned in the early 1920s and scrapped shortly thereafter, in accordance with the fleet reduction program imposed by the obsolescence of these vessels.

Characteristics

Length : 133.8 m

Width : 24.3 m

Draft : 8.4 m

Mass : 14,900 tons

The ship is powered by 3 steam engines supplied by 24 boilers, providing a total power of 18,000 hp. Its maximum speed is 19 knots and its range is 8,400 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The crew consists of 742 sailors.

Weapons

The ship has a very similar armament to the first ship of the class but still has some differences.

Guns :

2 x 2 305mm Mle1893/96
10 x 194mm Mle1902
12 x 65mm Mle1902
8 x 47mm Mle1886

Torpedo :

2 x 450mm Torpedo Tube

Armor

The armor of this ship was designed to withstand shells from ships of its time; however, it quickly became obsolete, unable to withstand the fire of more modern vessels.

Belt: 180-280mm
Turret: 360mm
Conning Tower: 266mm
Deck:
- Upper: 54mm
- Lower: 51mm

In-game, this ship would be a very interesting addition to the French tech tree, providing a versatile combat ship, albeit slightly under-armed and under-armored for its time, thus complementing the French fleet in an intelligent way.

Pictures

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